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THE INAUGURATION OF 

RUSH RHEES, LL.D. 

AS PRESIDENT OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER 



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OCTOBER ELEVENTH, NINETEEN HUNDRED 

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK 



THE INAUGURATION 

= OF = ~ .^ 

RUSH RHEES, LL.D. 



AS PRESIDENT OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER 



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OCTOBER ELEVENTH, NINETEEN HUNDRED 

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK 



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SEP 23 1904 
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INTRODUCTORY NOTE 



At a meeting held in Rochester, N. Y., July 6th, 1899, the Trustees 
of the University of Rochester voted to invite Professor Rush Rhees, of 
The Newton Theological Institution, Newton Centre, Mass., to become 
president of the University, On the 24th of July, 1899, Mr. Rhees 
communicated to the secretary of the Board his acceptance of the election 
tendered him. Engagements previously made rendered it impossible for 
him to take up his new duties until July ist, 1900. It was then deemed 
advisable to postpone the formal induction of the new president into cftice 
until after the beginning of the next college year. The date fixed upon 
was the nth of Octobei-, 1900. On that day, in response to invitations 
issued by the Trustees and Faculty of the University, many distin- 
guished guests, alumni, and friends of the institution gathered to witness 
and participate in the inauguration ceremonies. 

The exercises were held in the Alumni Gymnasium at 4 o'clock in the 
afternoon. The Trustees of the University, the Faculty, the invited 
guests, many of the alumni, and the students, gathered at Anderson Hall at 
the appointed hour and marched in procession to the Gymnasium, where a 
large audience had already assembled. Charles M. ^Yilliams, Esquire, 
secretary of the Board of Trustees, presided. At his left on the platform 
sat the president of the Board, Edward Mott Moore, M. D,, LL. D., whose 
uncertain health had rendered it necessary that the duties of the presiding 
officer should be performed by another. At the right of Mr. Williams sat 
President Rhees, and with them were gathered on the platform the Honor- 
able Seth Low, LL. D., President of Columbia University in the city of New 
York; the Reverend \Yilliam R. Harper, Ph. D., D. D., LL. D., President of 
the University of Chicago ; the Reverend L. Clark Seelye, D. D., LL. D., 
President of Smith College; the Reverend George Edmands Memll, D. D., 
President of Colgate University ; the Reverend Augustus Hopkins Strong, 
D. D.,LL. D., President of the Rochester Theological Seminaiy ; the Rever- 
end George B. Stewax't, D. D., President of the Auburn Theological Seminar^-; 
the Reverend James M. Taylor, D. D., LL. D., President of Vassar College ; 
the Reverend Robert Ellis Jones, S. T. D., President of Hobart College; the 
Reverend Almon Gunnison, D. D., President of Saint LawTence Univer- 
sity; the Reverend Boothe Colwell Davis, Ph.D., President of Alfred 

3 



4 INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

University; Professor George Prentice Bristol, A. M., of Cornell University; 
Major General Elwell S. Otis, LL. D., of the United States Army. 

The music for the occasion was furnished by the college glee club. 
The prayer of invocation was offered by President Merrill of Colgate 
University. Mr. Williams, after a concise historical statement concerning 
the significance of the occasion, introduced in order, President Low of 
Columbia University, who spoke on " The City and University " ; President 
Harper of the University of Chicago, who spoke on "The College Officer 
and the College Student"; and President Seelye, of Smith College, who 
spoke on " Limitations of the Power of the College President ". 

After these addresses, Mr. Williams formally delivered to the President- 
elect the charter, seal, and keys, and, in behalf of the corporation, declared 
him installed as president of the University. 

Dr. Rhees responded expressing his sense of the seriousness of the task 
laid upon him, and pledging himself to earnestness and fidelity in the 
discharge of the same. He then delivered his inaugural address on "The 
Modernizing of Liberal Culture ". 

At the close of the address the students voiced their welcome for the 
new president by the college cheer and afterwards tendered similar expres- 
sions of welcome in turn to each of the distinguished guests. The 
exercises of the afternoon closed with the singing of " The Genesee," by 
the college glee club. 

In the evening a large company of the citizens of Rochester and visiting 
guests gathered in the Gymnasium in response to the invitation of the 
Trustees to extend a welcome to President and Mrs. Rhees. 



OPENING ADDRESS 



CHARLES M. WILLIAMS, Esquire 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

The duty has been assigned me as an officer of the Board of 
Trustees, to welcome you to this inaugural service. 

In the fift}^ years of its existence, the University of Rochester 
has been favored with the devoted service of administrators of 
strong character, marked individuality, and rare gifts. At the 
first meeting of the executive committee of the Board of 
Trustees, held at the First Baptist church in this city, on 
September 17th, 1850, the Honorable Ira Harris was elected 
chancellor. Judge Harris, afterwards United States senator, 
presided at commencement and performed the duties of chan- 
cellor until 1853, when Martin Brewer Anderson, LL. D., was 
elected the first president of the college. 

For a period of thirty-five years Dr. Anderson administered 
his trust with conspicuous fidelity, zeal, and distinction. He 
'' brought things to pass " and left upon the college the imperish- 
able impress of his great personality. The revered Asahel C. 
Kendrick, D.D., LL. D., served for a brief period as acting 
president. " Their memory is a^ gentle as the summer air, 
when reapers sing mid harvest sheaves." 

The second president was the beloved and eloquent David 
Jayne Hill, LL. D., (now the distinguished Assistant Secretary 
of State of the United States), whose able administration of the 
college from 1888 to 1896 is familiar histor}'\ Who of us can 
forget the vigor of his teaching, the grace of his diction, and the 
charm of his thought ? After Dr. Hill's resignation, Professor 

5 



6 OPENING ADDRESS 

Samuel A. Lattimore, LL. D., and Professor Henry F. Burton, 
A. M., successively served as acting president. They merit our 
gratitude for their loyal and valuable services. 

At the accession of Dr. Anderson the University occupied (in 
connection with the Rochester Theological Seminary) the old 
United States Hotel building on West Main street, and the 
services attending the inauguration of the first president were 
held at Corinthian Hall on the afternoon of July i ith, 1854. No 
inaugural ceremonies, however, ushered in the administration of 
President Hill ; for he was detained in Europe at the appointed 
time and forwarded his inaugural address, which was read by 
Professor William C. Morey, Ph. D., at the Alumni dinner in 
Anderson Hall. The present occasion, therefore, may become 
historic, for it is the first time that a president of the University 
has been formally inducted into office upon the campus. 

We meet to-day to inaugurate the third president of the 
college. Rush Rhees, LL. D., whose administration is already 
glowing with promise, for the opening term brings the largest 
entering class in the history of the LTniversity. 



THE CITY AND THE UNIVERSITY 



PRESIDENT LOW OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, Officers, Students 
and Friends of the University of Rochester : 

It is a pleasure for me to be with you to-day at the installa- 
tion of your new president, Dr. Rush Rhees. I am especially 
glad to be here, because it enables me to express by Avord of 
mouth the greetings and good wishes of Columbia University 
for both the Universit}^ of Rochester and its new president. 
When the institution now known as Columbia University was 
founded in 1754 the city of New York was a small place of 
10,000 inhabitants, some of whom were slaves. Those who 
founded King's College at that early day had, however, the 
prophetic vision. This is the work which King's College set 
before itself, according to its first announcement issued in 1754 : 
" A serious, virtuous, and industrious Course of Life being first 
provided for, it is further the Design of this College, to instruct 
and perfect the Youth in the learned Languages, and in the Arts 
of Reasoning exactly, of Writing correctly, and Speaking elo- 
quently : And in the arts of Numbering and Measuring, of 
Surveying and Navigation, of Geography and History, of Hus- 
bandry, Commerce, and Government ; and in the Knowledge of 
all Nature in the Heavens above us, and in the Air, Water, and 
Earth around us, and the various Kinds of Meteors, Stones, Mines 
and Minerals, Plants and Animals, and of every Thing useful for 
the Comfort, the Convenience, and Elegance of Life, in the chief 
Manufactures relating to any of these things : And finally, to 
lead them from the Study of Nature, to the Knowledge of them- 

7 



8 THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LOW 

selves, and of the God of Nature, and their Duty to Hmi, 
themselves, and one another ; and every Thing that can con- 
tribute to their true Happiness both here and hereafter." 

Columbia University is striving still to fill out the picture 
which was sketched in outline in this early announcement. 
How much or how little of such a programme has been or can 
be carried out by the University of Rochester, I do not know. 
My object to-day is to speak rather of the relations which ought 
to exist between any such institution and the city in which it is ; 
for the city ought to mean much to the university, and the 
university certainly ought to be of great service to the city. 

I think I am right in supposing that the University of Rochester 
is in fact a college rather than a university, in the meaning that 
those words are rapidly obtaining in American thought in these 
days. More and more, I think, it is beginning to be realized 
that the aim of the college and the aim of the university are 
different. The object of the college is to give a liberal educa- 
tion ; that is to say, to train a man's powers and to develop the 
man himself. The object of the university is to make specialists ; 
it may be in one of the professions, or as teachers, investigators, 
or writers. No one may say that the one aim is more important 
than the other ; but it is important to recognize that the aims are 
different. First of all, therefore, I should say that the Univer- 
sity of Rochester under its new administration should determine 
carefully which function it proposes to discharge ; for, if its aim 
is to be a college, its policy will naturally be controlled by other 
considerations than those which would prevail if its purpose is to 
develop on the university side ; that is to say, as an institution 
for the training of specialists. 

The American college has done a wonderful work for the 
country. It has not made within its walls many great scholars ; 
neither has that been its aim. But it has awakened in many 
men a desire for scholarship which they have satisfied else- 
where ; and it has trained men of ideals and thoroughly effective 



THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LOW 9 

men, for public life, for all the professions, and for the duties of 
good citizenship. No more useful and no more honorable work 
can be attempted by the University of Rochester, or by any other 
institution, than to do its part in keeping up the supply of such 
well-rounded and broadly-developed citizens. Every community 
needs men who can deal with the problems of the moment in the 
light of experience ; and in the light not only of their own 
experience, or of the experience of the neighborhood, but in the 
light of the experience of all the past and of men everywhere. 
This sense of perspective, this power to see present happenings 
against the background of the past, ought to be everywhere one 
of the characteristics of the college-bred man. Such a man 
ought to be free from that disposition which destroys courageous 
effort and makes progress difficult, of believing that the golden 
age of humanity is behind us. The more carefully and the 
more broadly he has read history, the more sure he will be that 
the condition of mankind tends constantly to improvement, and 
that the golden age of the race is before it. On the other hand, 
such a man will not forget that "there were brave men before 
Agamemnon " ; and that there were acute investigators before the 
men of science of our own day. Accordingly, he will not believe 
that every change, because it is a change, is therefore desirable ; 
but he will try all proposals in the light of history. He will not 
attempt the idle endeavor to reproduce the past in the future ; 
but from the past he will glean the principles that ought to 
control the individual and the state in the present emergency. 
If you will read " The Federalist", I think you will be struck by 
the care which the framers of the constitution took to acquaint 
themselves with what men had attempted in government the 
world over from the beginning of recorded history. They were 
aware that the conditions of life in this country were too new to 
justify the transplantation bodily of old methods to the new soil : 
but they adapted old principles to the new conditions with a skill 
Avhich has never been surpassed. That is the sort of service, it 



lO THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LOW 

seems to me, which cohege-bred men ought to be able to render 
in large measure to the country. I cannot help thinking that 
any city which has in its borders an institution for the liberal 
training of its sons and daughters ought to feel the influence of 
its presence in almost every department of the city's life. Its 
graduates cannot help giving to the city a wider outlook and 
larger interests. Not only the present, but the long historic 
past, becomes a part of the city's possession, and the city will be 
a more attractive place to live in because the college is within its 
borders. 

If, on the other hand, the University of Rochester is inclined 
to add to this function of giving a liberal education the function 
of the university, which I have defined as making specialists, it 
then becomes important for the University authorities to inquire 
what special opportunities the city offers for the development of 
this kind of work. The business of making specialists, while it 
sounds as easy as the other, is vastty more costly. It requires a 
great library — the greater the better, provided the books are well 
selected ; it requires costly apparatus without limit ; it demands 
the services, not of a few men only, but of many ; for many things 
enter into the equipment of a specialist in any of the professions, 
or for the occupation of the teacher, the historian, or the 
investigator. 

The man who wishes to become a specialist, also, is likely 
to go to that university which offers the greatest opportunities in 
the direction for which he aims to prepare himself. It would be 
necessary to consider, therefore, from this point of view, what 
special thing the University of Rochester could do that is not 
being done as well or better elsewhere. It is a fact, I believe, 
that most of the colleges in the United States draw fully ninety per 
cent, of their students from their own state and mostly from their 
own neighborhood. It is not so, however, with the great univer- 
sities. They draw their students from all over the country ; one 
may almost say, from all parts of the world. The American 



THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LOW II 

universities are beginning to draw students even from Europe, 
and they come in considerable numbers from Japan as well. 
This tendency is likely to increase ; for the man who wishes to 
make himself an authority^ upon any subject understands per- 
fectly well that he must, if he can. go to that place in the whole 
world, wherever it may be, where that subject is best taught. I 
cannot say, therefore, whether there is any special encouragement 
for the Universit}^ of Rochester to develop along these lines. If 
it should make the attempt, however, my advice would be to trv^ 
to excel in a small part of the field, rather than to attempt to 
cover so much as to do nothing especially well. 

The city of Rochester does not consist of houses and streets 
and factories, but it consists of the people who live in the houses, 
who travel the streets, and who conduct and operate the 
factories. Everything, therefore, that adds to the welfare of the 
people is a direct contribution to the welfare of the city itself. I 
have already pointed out how directly both a college and a 
universit}' serve the community in developing and training those 
who in their turn are certain to be people of influence in the 
city. But the University of Rochester has done and will do more 
than this. It trains many whose lot in life will be cast else- 
where ; and v\-herever they go these children of the E^niversity are 
likely to carry a sense of grateful obligation to the city of Roch- 
ester and to the university which bears its name. If, as may 
easily happen, any of them, or many of them, become people of 
mark in the communities where they go, it will be, in effect, the 
city of Rochester which is thus bestowing benefits upon the 
community in which they live. This, as it seems to me, is one 
of the things that ought to be expected, as a matter of course, of 
every cit\^ in our day and generation, that, in one way or another, 
it will give out benefit as well as take it in. During the whole 
centur}- the tendency of population has set strongly toward 
cities. A larger percentage of the population of the countr}' lives 
in cities at the present time than even ten years ago. The cities 



12 THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LOW 

can justify themselves in thus absorbing the population of the 
land, only by demonstrating that they have the capacity to give 
as well as to take. 

If they take the people out of the country, they must not only 
give to these individuals enlarged opportunity and greater 
happiness, but through them and through their own sons, they 
must give back to the country in a thousand ways what they have 
taken from it. They must not be content to receive only ; they 
must strive strenuously to give back. And of all the ways in 
which a city can make return to the country as a whole for the 
riches that are poured into its lap, I know of no way more bene- 
ficial, nor more desirable, than by contributing to the better^ 
education of those who come within its influence. I bespeak, 
therefore, for the University of Rochester, the generous, the 
unfailing, and the hearty support of the people of the city. 

Your beautiful city used to be called the "Flour City," 
because, in the early days, so much wheat was ground here. It 
is now called, I believe, the "Flower City" in another sense, 
because here are the great nurseries from which trees and seeds 
of every sort are sent all over the land. Both of these names 
are honorable, and each in its turn has betokened something 
that was characteristic of the city. But the first name has 
passed with the industry that gave rise to it; the second still 
abides, but even that in time may give place to something else. 
But the city that contributes a great man to the world, or that 
trains a great man for great service in the world, has an abiding 
claim upon the gratitude of mankind. Any city that hopes to be 
famous, in the sense that Athens was famous and is famous still, 
must crown its material success with an intellectual life powerful 
both within its limits and beyond its borders. To give to the 
cit}^ of its home such an intellectual crown in the worthiest sense, 
I conceive to be the supreme duty of a college or a universit}^ to 
the community in which it exists. 



THE COLLEGE OFFICER AND THE 
COLLEGE STUDENT 



PRESIDENT HARPER OF THE UNIVERSITY 
OF CHICAGO 

The growth of interest shown in the field of higher education 
during thirty years or so, has been as marked as the growth in 
the industrial world. The changes which have come about in 
connection with this growth and in part as a consequence of it, 
are greater than can be appreciated without a careful comparison, 
point by point, between the usage of to-day and that of a quarter 
of a century ago. That multitude of agencies, all of which 
relate themselves to the thought of democracy and owe their life 
to the spirit of democracy, has exerted influence upon the 
minutest details of higher educational life and method. The 
changes, therefore, in the educational field are due to the same 
causes, and indeed are the same changes as those which have 
taken place in every kind of life about us. Thirty years ago 
there were no universities or large institutions. Harvard had 
655 students, Yale 664 students, Michigan 432 students. The 
American university is something entirely new, and side by side 
with its development, important modifications in the method and 
aim of college work have come in. No one questions for a single 
moment the fact that these changes in general have sensed to 
advance the cause of education, and yet one will be slow to make 
the distinct announcement that in every detail these changes have 
proved to be a source of added strength. However this may be, 
I desire on this occasion to consider one of the many points of 
our educational life. I have in mind the actual relationship 

13 



14 THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT HARPER 

which exists, or should exist, between the college student in his 
student life and the college professor. I use the word " college " 
rather than the word "university." In real university life the 
question of this relationship is one which has not yet received 
even the slightest consideration. I am myself persuaded that in 
the university, as well as in the college, the members of the 
faculty have definite and large responsibility outside of those 
responsibilities pertaining directly to the work of the lecture 
room, — but the opportunity this afternoon permits but few words 
at best and these I restrict to the college life as distinguished 
from university life. 

The college professor to-day is not an officer of the state, — but 
a fellow student. The truth is he is not an officer at all, although 
in view of the old traditions or with a new meaning for the 
word, the term may be employed. The higher institution of 
learning is not, as it once was, an institution empowered to try 
its students for civil or criminal offences. University courts are 
a reminiscence of the middle ages. The college professor is not 
a judge nor indeed a member of a jury. He is not set to pass 
judgment on the conduct of the student in so far as that conduct 
comes into conflict with state laws. The college community is 
one made up of older and younger students, all of whom have 
joined the community in order to make progress in intellectual 
life. If some of the members of the community for good reason 
violate its common sentiment, they should retire, and naturally 
it will be the older members of the community who, as fellow- 
students, shall have most to do with determining the particular 
spirit that shall be characteristic of the communit}^ In that 
incitement which those more advanced in the same lines of 
work may furnish to those who follow, in the sympathy which 
binds together those who hold interests in common, in the 
ambition which leads a student to emulate and to out-distance 
fellow students, — in these and other ways the college professor 
will show himself to be as much a student as any students of the 



THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT HARPER 1 5 

college, as intense a worker, as sympathetic a listener, as humble 
a learner, as any of the members of the community. The only 
difference between the professor and the pupil is that the former 
has the advantage of maturity and of experience. This advan- 
tage he shares unselfishly with his fellow student, the pupil. Is 
the pupil just beginning his work along these higher lines ? The 
professor has learned long since that, whatever progress he may 
have made, he is still only on the border lines of knowledge in 
his department. The college professor who has not the student 
spirit should not continue his college work, and if he have the 
student spirit, then he is a fellow student with all who have that 
spirit. The idea involved in the arbitrary exercise of authority 
as an officer is utterly opposed to the student spirit. It is an 
attitude of mind with which the student spirit is entirely incon- 
sistent, and so to-day the true and efficient college instructor is 
only an older fellow student in a guild made up of members, all 
of whom, if they deserve to retain their membership, are fellow 
students. If he is more than this, he is not this ; if he is less 
than this, he is nothing. 

The college professor to-day is not an officer in loco parentis. 
It is an old and a widely prevailing opinion which in opposition 
to this statement would make the college instructor parent for the 
time being of those with whom he is to associate. This idea is, 
of course, closel}^ related to that which has just been mentioned. 
Parents who have occupied the first sixteen or eighteen years of 
the life of the prospective pupil in such a manner as to convince 
that pupil that parental discipline is something to be dreaded and 
to be avoided, something mischievous and productive of every 
evil, are only too glad to turn over their sons and daughters to 
the college, with the understanding that the college shall now 
assume the parental authority. Such parents, in transferring 
this dignified and wide-reaching function, have transferred in 
these cases something that has long since emptied itself of its 
dignit}^ and of its worth. If parental authorit}' has been rightly 



1 6 THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT HARPER 

exercised, the young man or young woman at the age of 
eighteen ought to be free, within the Hmitations of conventional 
Hfe, to do what seems proper, in so far as it does not conflict 
with the general sentiment of the particular community to which 
he has now given adherence. If the parental authority has 
not been exercised properly during those eighteen years, the 
young man or young woman will not be found ready to submit 
to artificial authority of an institutional character even for a 
moment. No ! The instructor is not a parent, nor does he have 
the authority of a parent. Parents are in these days themselves 
wise enough to know that at the college age the time has come 
when the young man or young woman will not brook objective 
or institutional authority. The influence of the parent has its 
basis in affection ; and the professor must convince the student 
that he is serving the student's interests if he would exert strong 
influence. The instructor is, therefore, an older brother in the 
student family. Here again his advantage is only that which 
comes from age and experience. As in the same family there 
are those who stand more closely associated, there being differ- 
ences of relationship between the brothers, this in some cases 
being closer, in others less close, — so the ideal community is a 
fraternity in which older and younger come together and 
influence each other. For my own part, I can conceive that the 
influence of the younger members in this fraternity is as great in 
many instances upon the older as is that of the older upon the 
younger. This influence will be very strong ; and will be entirely 
different from any arbitrary exercise of authority. The college 
community is a democrac}^ All men are not equal even in a 
democracy, although all deserve equal privileges. In the coflege 
community those have large influence, who because of age and 
wisdom and training have larger opportunity to aid those who, as 
yet, have not received this. 

If these conceptions are in any measure correct, it follows that 
the relationship which we are considering will depend upon the 



THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT HARPER 1 7 

extent to which the pupil, in any given case, and the instructor 
have common interests ; and those who have common interests, 
whether of an objective or of a subjective character, will alone 
derive strong advantage from this relationship. It is here that 
the principle of election plays its part. The opportunity to elect 
certain subjects for study is an opportunity which permits the 
pupil to assume the relation of fellowship with an instructor 
whose highest interests connect themselves with those subjects. 
A pupil cannot be a fellow student with a professor, if pupil and 
professor do not have a fellow feeling toward the subject studied ; 
while on the other hand, fellowship and friendship can hardly 
be avoided in the case of pupil and instructor whose hearts are 
drawn in the same direction, whose minds are lead to deal 
continuously with the same thought, and whose lives are thus 
brought intimately together. Fellow studentship between in- 
structor and pupil is therefore dependent upon the opportunity 
to elect ; and where it has existed in earlier times without this 
opportunity it has been, in many cases, an accident. The prin- 
ciple of election has made student fellowship between officer and 
pupil possible, — nay more, it has made any other relationship 
impossible. But this, it may be said, does not apply to those 
subjects in the first years of college work, which all students take 
in common, — for example : Latin, English, Mathematics. Here 
an important difference exists between the larger and the smaller 
college. In the latter the old regime still continues. The 
freshmen and the sophomore do not think of student fellowship. 
It is only when one has come to be a junior or senior that he 
may be said under ordinary circumstances to enter into any kind 
of relationship with instructors, — and this is because in most 
instances in the smaller institution all students must go to one 
man for work in Latin, to another for work in English, and to 
another for work in Mathematics. Even though there be two or 
three men in each department — the student has no choice; be- 
cause, there being but a single class of a certain stage of advance- 



l8 THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT HARPER 

ment, one instructor takes more advanced students, another those 
less advanced, and this leaves the student himself no choice. In 
the larger institutions it is possible, although it must be confessed 
the possibility is not often realized, to apply the principle of 
election to the instructor rather than to the subject of instruc- 
tion, — and here a new principle comes into operation. The 
pupil may select one of two or three or even more instructors, 
who are offering the same course of instruction at the same 
time. Much is to be said in favor of -the distribution of 
students in sections made up of those of equal intellectual 
strength, section A including those who rank highest, the other 
sections also being organized on the basis of scholarship. 
There are advantages in this system, — but there are advantages 
also in the system which will allow each student to select that 
one of the two or more instructors offering the same subject at 
the same time, who shall seem to be a man between whom and 
the pupil a closer personal relationship may exist. One 
instructor ma)^ prove to be sympathetic and helpful to pupils of 
a certain temperament and attitude of mind. This same 
instructor may utterly fail to be of assistance to another group 
of students equally strong, — while a second instructor may 
succeed with the second group and fail with the first. Few men 
occupy the professional chair in our colleges who can touch 
closely even the larger number of the students in their classes. 
This is in many cases, as has been said, a matter of natural 
temperament. The nervous and vigorous instructor will accom- 
plish most for students of one temperament, while students of 
another temperament will receive injury from his instruction. 
The sober, quiet and unobtrusive personality of another instruc- 
tor will, on the other hand, find response in the minds and hearts 
of students whom the first instructor could not touch. 

From this point of view care should be taken that the 
instructors in a given department of study should be men or 
women of entirely different types, in order that being thus 



THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT HARPER 1 9 

different they may bring themselves into relationship with 
different t}'pes of pupils. In the liberty accorded the pupil to 
select the departments in which he will study, and in the liberty 
which he may enjoy to make choice between different instructors 
offering the same grade of work at the same time, there will be 
found the basis, and the only basis, for fellow studentship and 
for fraternal comradeship, and these together constitute the ideal 
relationship that should exist between instructor and pupil. 

I regret that the limit of time has not permitted me to make 
more clear and more definite the thought I have in mind ; but 
now, in bearing greetings from the University which I have the 
honor to represent, and I think I may add, the university frater- 
nity of the western states, to our colleague who to-day assumes 
the responsibilities of this high office, it will not be inappropriate 
to make brief application of these propositions to him and to his 
office. 

If the college instructor is a student, if he is a fellow student, 
one of the members of a community of students, the president 
of the college must in a peculiar sense be such a student. There 
is no place in the college community for a man, whether he be a 
pupil or an instructor or a president, who is not a student, who 
himself is not engaged in the search for truth, or for the best 
methods of propagating truth already known. I do not mean 
that he must be a formal teacher. For this there may not be 
good opportunity. The college community cannot have as its 
most honored member one who is not a student in one or another 
of the great departments of life, one who has not the student 
mind, the student attitude of mind, the student sympathy, the 
student ambition. 

If the college communit}^ is a family of brothers in which the 
instructor is an older member, guiding as best he can those who 
have more recently entered the family, it follows that the presi- 
dent is the elder brother, the oldest of the family, that one on 
whom special responsibilities rest, responsibilities which shall be 



20 THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT HARPER 

discharged only as they conserve the interests of the family, as 
they include the work and the growth of even the youngest 
member of the family. The relationship between him and the 
instructor is that of brothers closely related in age. His relation- 
ship to the pupils is that of a brother somewhat separated 
perhaps in years, but in whose heart, for that reason, there will 
be found greater tenderness and care for those who are the 
newcomers in the family. The president will be the most 
honored student of the student community. He is the oldest 
brother of the family, and as such his interests will be broader 
than those of any other student. Personally, he may have made 
choice of some special subject, but officially, he will feel the same 
interest in every department, and will labor with his fellow 
students who represent those departments, for their upbuilding. 
Breadth of interest will be his strongest characteristic. As a 
member and brother in the family he will exercise the largest 
sympathy with the other brothers of the family, old and young. 
His personal relationship will be close ; with each brother of the 
family, w4io has occasion to rejoice, he will rejoice ; with each 
member of the family who has occasion to weep, he will weep. 
As a true brother he will point out to each member of the family, 
young and old, what in his opinion is wrong; and he will make 
effort to suggest how improvement may be secured. He will 
exercise that candor and that straightforward bluntness, if 
needed, which a brother may exercise toward a brother. His 
attitude will not be that of a superior person endowed for the 
time being with special power. The true college president is 
not a "boss," he is a fellow student and a brother. 

The best wishes of many friends, whom I may undertake to 
represent this afternoon, will follow the new president of the 
University of Rochester in the important work upon which he 
to-day officially enters. 



LIMITATIONS OF THE POWER OF THE 
COLLEGE PRESIDENT 



PRESIDENT SEELYE OF SMITH COLLEGE 

Gathering, as we do, to celebrate the inauguration of a presi- 
dent of this honored university, the theme which has been sug- 
gested as botli pertinent to the occasion and as timely in view 
of recent discussion, is the limitations of the president's power in 
the American college. In the brief time allotted me, I shall treat 
the subject merely in its relation to the three bodies which it- 
chiefly concerns — the trustees, the faculty and the students. 

The trustees represent the supreme authorit}-, subject only to 
the legislative body that appointed them and to the conditions of 
their charter. On them the president's tenure of office and 
salary depend. In most colleges he is made, also, a member of 
the corporation, and frequently its president, but his vote counts 
no more than that of one of his associates, and, like them, he is 
subject to the will of the majority. They may assert their 
authority so restrictively that he will become merely their exec- 
utive agent, or, through indifference or preoccupation, they may 
leave the administration so completely in his hands that the 
corporation will become of little more account than a passive seal 
to give legal validity to his acts. In either case the institution is 
likely to suffer a grievous injur}^ The men best qualified for the 
presidency will not accept it on the condition of becoming 
merely an executive officer; and no college, however able its 
president, can afford to dispense with the intelligent co-operation 
of its trustees. When due care has been taken to select trustees 
of broad views and practical sagacity, representing varied 

21 



2 2 THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT SEELYE 

pursuits, — the more representative the better, — they supplement 
a president's deficiencies and multiply his resources. Their 
friendly opposition will serve to correct his judgment, and their 
wise suggestions will improve his plans. Factious opposition, 
springing from narrow-mindedness or obstinate self-will, may, it 
is true, do much to make the administration of any man a failure. 
That evil, however, is less to be dreaded than those which arise 
from the imperious temper of a president who practically usurps 
the functions of the governing body and acts without the aid or 
restraint of the corporation. Of course, it is of primal import- 
ance that the trustees should select a man to whom they can 
grant the liberty essential to successful leadership; and while 
they may properly refuse to sanction some of the measures which 
he advocates, they should not compel him to execute any to 
which he is much opposed. To his opinion in the selection of 
teachers, especially, the greatest deference should be given. 
Nor should he be required, by majority vote, either to appoint 
or to retain a teacher whom he considers unfit for a position. 
When on such an issue he can no longer secure the support of 
the corporation, both self-respect and the interest of the institu- 
tion would seem to demand a president's resignation. 

It is in his relation to the faculty, however, that the president 
may find the greatest aid and the greatest hindrance to his work. 
They determine, more than any other body, the character of a 
college, and in manifold ways they may strengthen or weaken its 
administration. It is much harder to get a good faculty than to 
get a good working corporation. First-class teachers are rare. 
No college or university, however rich or powerful, has enough 
of them. Those best endowed sometimes feel their pedagogical 
poverty most keenly, and are forced to supply their deficiencies 
with second-rate men. The typical faculty represents great 
inequalities of intellectual attainments and personal power. If 
it be an old institution, the president will find, at first, most of 
the teachers better acquainted with its internal management 



THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT SEELYE 23 

than himself ; the majority of them his peers ; the heads of the 
departments generally his superiors in their knowledge of the 
branches which they teach. Exceptionally fortunate is the 
college, if in its teaching force there be found no clogs. 

How shall thjs heterogeneous company become an organic 
unity where the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of 
thee, nor the head to the feet, I have no need of you ? Can it 
be accomplished most effectually by giving the president auto- 
cratic power? This has been afhrmed recently in an entertain- 
ing article in the Atlantic Monthly, by "One of the Guild," who 
maintains that the president of a college should have the same 
authority that the president of a commercial corporation has 
over his subordinates. The general policy of the institution, the 
requirements for admission and degrees, the discipline of the 
students — all should be determined by him, subject only to the 
trustees. The remedy, in short, for the chief defects in the 
administration of our colleges is presidential autocracy. 

Nor are illustrations wanting of the practical application of 
this remedy. "We have no faculty meetings now," said a 
professor in one of our large colleges of recent origin. " We had 
them at first, but there was so much quarreling, and so little 
progress made, that the president decided to have none, and he 
manages the college now as he thinks best, or through the com- 
mittees which he appoints. On the whole, it is a relief, and 
there is less friction between departments." Said a professor in 
another college : " Our president is a good deal of a tyrant, but 
he succeeds in getting funds and in keeping the college well to 
the front, so that we are disposed to let him have his own way." 

Autocracy, however, is a hazardous expedient, and is likely 
to prove ultimately as pernicious in a college as it is in a state. 
It induces too great reliance upon the distinctive characteristics 
of a despot, and too little upon those of a gentleman. Infalli- 
bility and omniscience are not the prerogatives of college presi- 
dents, and the conceit of them should not appear as their foible. 



2 4 THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT SEELYE 

Like men generally, they need to learn the strength or the weak- 
ness of their measures in the light of other minds, and to get the 
broader outlook which comes when a subject is seen from various 
standpoints. 

Granted that a man of superior intellectual and moral power 
might effect some desirable changes more speedily than if he 
were compelled to wait for the tardy approval of those more 
sluggish and less intelligtent, still it may be doubted whether, for 
the permanent life of the institution, the autocratic spirit will 
be the most quickening and fruitful. A college is not a mechan- 
ism directed by a master workman. Its aim is not the accumu- 
lation of wealth, but the development of character and intelligence. 
This must be accomplished by the exposition rather than by the 
imposition of opinion, by persuasion rather than by coercion. 
The most progressive president can afford to tolerate the some- 
times tedious discussions of faculty meetings in order to secure 
that unanimitv of thousrht and sentiment which will make his 
associate teachers more efficient coadjutors in the prosecution of 
his plans. One-man power is apt to enfeeble or alienate those 
who are subject to it. In educational procedure it is better to 
lead than to drive. A heavier load can be moved and a greater 
speed made, when all pull together. Successful autocrats are 
few, and however long their term of service, it is short compared 
with the life of an institution. If they leave as an inheritance a 
spirit which has suppressed free inquiry, and which has made it 
difficult to secure and retain teachers of strong personality, the 
loss will probably be greater than any apparent gain which may 
have come through the rapid achievements of a Napoleonic 
policy. In many colleges veto power over faculty action is 
granted the president, and it may be a desirable safeguard, as it 
is in civil assemblies, against hasty legislation ; but a president, 
if he be wise, will exercise that prerogative sparingly, if ever, and 
he will suffer no serious loss if it be denied him. In our oldest 
college and university no veto power whatever is given to its 



THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT SEELYE 25 

president. In the corporation his vote counts no more than that 
of any other member. In the faculty where every member 
whose appointment is for more than one year has an equal right 
of speech and suffrage, and in the board of overseers elected by 
the alumni, — which has veto power over both corporation and 
faculty, — the president has only a single vote. But notwith- 
standing these limitations to his authority, whereby his projects 
may be frustrated by men less clear-sighted than himself, I 
venture to say, the man who to-day stands pre-eminent in the 
academic authority which he exercises is the president of Har- 
vard University. Few^ men have been more vigorously opposed 
or have seen their measures more often defeated by the rule of 
the majority, but every educator knows how royally he has 
triumphed over these limitations to his power, and how they have 
contributed to his success. 

The atmosphere of republican institutions is not favorable to 
autocracy ; and the president of an American college is likely to 
find his power augmented rather than lessened by treating his 
faculty as a parliamentary body with constitutional rights which 
he is bound to respect and maintain. 

Finally, in the relation of a college president to its students the 
same principles will apply ; he may increase his power by consti- 
tutional limitations. It is interesting to note the tendency to give 
up the dictatorial policy which has prevailed in most American 
colleges m the management of the student body, and to return 
to some of the forms of democratic student government which 
existed in the earliest European universities. Undergraduates 
as a class are too immature to legislate on matters which most 
deeply affect their educational interests, but there are questions 
concerning their social life which they are competent to decide ; 
and it is a valuable educational process for them, also, to have 
the responsibility of legislation. They will be disposed to 
observe the laws which they enact more faithfully, and to criti- 
cise them less captiously, than if the same laws were imposed by 



26 THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT SEELYE 

a superior body in which they had no voice. Where such a 
system has been adopted, its benefits have appeared in lessening- 
both the traditional antipathy of the students to the faculty, and 
the tenacity with which they cling to hereditary, barbaric 
customs. And a great deal is gained, if thereby they become 
the allies instead of the opponents of the administration. 

It is a misnomer, which may be a source of serious misunder- 
standing, to call the youngest and least authoritative assembly 
the Senate ; for whatever legislative functions may be granted to 
the students, they evidently should be subordinate to the trustees 
and faculty. Veto power over their legislation the president 
should undoubtedly possess, but this prerogative he will not 
often need to exercise, as he wins the students' confidence, and 
they learn to respect his opinions. 

In fact, it may be said, in his relations to all the bodies over 
which he presides, whether veto power be granted him in their 
by-laws or not, his most effectual veto is in himself, in the 
influence of his own personality. What he is will determine 
more than any legislative enactment what his authority will be. 
The greatest limitations to his power are in himself. To main- 
tain and increase his sway, it is of supreme importance that he 
be able to repeat sincerely the Master's words, " Ye call me 
Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am, but I am among 
you as one that serveth." His authority will be proportional to 
the faithfulness and efficiency of his service. Opposition, harsh 
and unjust criticism, he will undoubtedly meet ; the opposition 
he can most triumphantly overcome, and the criticism he can 
most conclusively answer, by assiduously developing in himself 
the best traits of mind and heart. Adding to the strength and 
courage of his convictions that charity which is not easily puffed 
up, he will learn how to accommodate himself to others, how to 
bear with them, how to win their confidence and to secure their 
friendly co-operation. 



THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT SEELYE 27 

A man thus disposed grows more powerful with his years. 
His word has the forceful momentum of his achievements and 
established character. Anderson at Rochester, Hopkins at 
Williams, Wayland at Brown, Woolsey at Yale, show how the 
president of a college, by magnanimity, by wisdom, by unselfish 
ministry, can win an authority more extensive than legislators 
could ever grant to their executive officer, more absolute than the 
most ambitious autocrat could ever attain. Men like these give 
to colleges their most permanent and extensive influence. For 
the University of Rochester we can wish no better fortune than 
the power of such a life in the president whom she inaugurates 
to-day. 



PRESENTATION OF THE CHARTER, 
SEAL AND KEYS 



CHARLES M. WILLIAMS, Esquire 

Doctor Rhees : 

The Trustees of the University of Rochester tender you 
cordial salutations. Recognizing your acknowledged ability 
and excellent attainments, they invited you by unanimous vote 
to become the president of this institution. You have accepted 
the invitation. The selection thus made has been received with 
marked cordiality by faculty, alumni, students and friends of the 
college. Reposing entire confidence in your learning and fidel- 
ity, w^e welcome you to this new field of preferment and of 
honorable achievement. 

In accordance wdth the instructions of my colleagues, in their 
name and by their authority as the Board of Trustees, I commit 
to you the charter, seal and keys of the University of Rochester ; 
designing thus publicly by symbolic ceremony to invest you fully 
with all the powers, privileges, and prerogatives which pertain to 
the presidency of the college. I deliver to you this charter ; 
granted by the Regents of the University of the State of New 
York, it declares that " an iiistitution for the instruction of youth 
in the learned Ia?iguages and ifi the liberal and useful arts and 
sciences shall be, a7td hereby is, founded a?id established.^^ I need 
not remind you, sir, that the University of Rochester w^as dedi- 
cated at its foundation to the great cause of Christian education. 
For this end its founders gave their property, their labor, and 
their thought. Their sacrifices, their prayers, their anticipations 

have not been in vain. The past is the promise of the future. 

28 



THE ADDRESS OF MR, WILLIAMS 29 

It is for you as the chief administrator of the college, to carry on 
the noble purpose of its founders. It is true of institutions as of 
men, — write your history in the mental and moral elevation of 
mankind, and mankind will take care of your good name. 

I deliver to you this seal ; thus authorizing you to place upon 
the diplomas of the college the signet of corporate approval. 
The motto upon the seal is significant and prophetic, — 
"Meliora." The founders of this institution were men of 
sublime faith and abounding hope; they looked for ''better 
things," beyond the pressing needs of the present, in the larger 
and progressive future ; from the mutable to the things that 
abide. This college is a place not only for the acquisition of 
knowledge, but for the formation and cultivation of noble char- 
acter. Our University will never be decked in feudal pomp ; she 
bears not the prestige of many years ; she is beautiful neither in 
marble nor carved workmanship ; yet she is the mother of 
thinkers and workers — high souls and brave hearts — which make 
their throb felt in the giant pulses of a great nation. To her 
Gracchi — the Alumni — she may point and say, "Behold my 
jewels." With the love of her sons, aye, and her daughters, — 
" she may be crowned more royally than turrets might crown her ; 
and better than all the remembrances of coronets upon her 
calendar, or ermine in her halls, is the thought that merit grasp- 
ing her protectress hand has often, and will often, struggle up to 
fame out of the oblivion of namelessness, and the clutch of 
poverty." 

And, lastly, I deliver to you, as a token of your possession and 
guardianship of college property, these five keys of the Univer- 
sity buildings, viz.: — Anderson Hall, the first building erected 
on this campus and named in honor of the revered first presi- 
dent ; the library building, known as Sibley Hall, erected in 
1874 by the generosity of a citizen of Rochester, the late Hiram 
Sibley ; the Reynolds Chemical Laboratory, erected also by a 
citizen of Rochester, the late Mortimer F. Reynolds, in 1886, in 



30 THE ADDRESS OF MR. WILLIAMS 

loving memory of his brother, the late William A. Reynolds, a 
member of our Board of Trustees ; this Gymnasium — so recently 
erected — the loyal gift of the Alumni; the President's house, 
the testimonial of the citizens of Rochester, in appreciation of 
the services of your prececessor, Martin B. Anderson. 

" Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy 
palaces." 

And now, being invested with the indicia of your office, 
I hereby, in the name and on behalf of the corporate authority 
of this institution, publicly declare you, Rush Rhees, LL. D., 
duly installed as president of the University of Rochester. 



THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS 



PRESIDENT RHEES 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees : — I 
accept the trust you have this day formally committed to me with 
a deep sense of its dignity and seriousness. I pledge to you my 
most earnest and diligent endeavor to realize the broad hopes of 
those who secured this charter, to guard the honor of this seal, 
to be watchful for the most efficient use of these buildings, and 
in general to advance in every possible way the usefulness of the 
University over which you have called me to preside. 

And now, Mr. President, distinguished Friends, Gentlemen of 
the Board of Trustees, Alumni, and Ladies and Gentlemen : 

In obedience to the custom which asks for my confession of 
educational faith on entering this office, I invite you to consider 
w^ith me this afternoon some of the facts and problems involved 
in " The Modernizing of Liberal Culture." 

There is good reason why we should admire the high ideals 
and large hopes which prompted the founders of this institution 
to secure for it its liberal charter, and in some measure influenced 
the choice of its name. Men have reached practical agreement, 
however, that a name does not constitute a university. The 
difference between a college and a university is a clear difference 
of aim. The college aims to give to its students a liberal 
culture, which has in view no special calling or profession, but 
simply the fullest development of their intellectual powers and 
the widest practicable information of their minds. A university, 
on the other hand, seeks to tram specialists ; for its proper work 
it demands that its students shall have completed their college 
training ; and carries them on to advanced degrees in philosophy 

31 



32 THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

and other fields of knowledge. Rochester has not developed, in 
its past 'history and in its present aim, those higher faculties 
which are essential to university work. It seeks with seriousness 
and frankness to do the work of an American college, and to 
meet the demands which the new century makes upon its schools 
of liberal culture. It is not necessary for me to discuss the 
meaning of liberal culture, nor to state in detail how it is to be 
attained. It will be sufficient for our purpose, if we remember 
that a liberal education seeks first, to train a man in the use of 
all of his intellectual powers ; and secondly, to inform him, as 
widely as may be, concerning himself and his world. Of these 
two aims the first is generally recognized as the more important. 
It is a comparatively slight matter that we should be able to prove 
that the square on the hypotl\enuse of a right triangle is equal to 
the sums of the squares on the sides ; or that we should have 
the power to determine by the use of reagents the constituents 
of a given chemical compound. It is of supreme importance 
that we have our reasoning powers in such control that when 
confronted by the practical problems of life these powers will 
render prompt and sure service. It is of slight importance, 
comparatively, that a man be familiar with the precise shades of 
meaning of the Greek prepositions or of the Latin subjunctive ; 
it is of the highest importance that his powders of discrimination 
be so trained that he may be able to distinguish, in practical life, 
between things essentially different but superficially alike. 
Mere intellectual discipline, however, may secure no more than 
a scholastic acuteness like that which, in the days of the later 
schoolmen, busied itself with the profitless discussion of subjects 
unworthy of serious consideration. Matthew Arnold's concep- 
tion of culture, — "• Acquainting ourselves with the best that has 
been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of 
the human spirit," emphasizes a highly important truth; for 
intelligent exercise of judgment, broad knowledge is as essential 
as disciplined powers. 



THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS T,^ 

The many subjects of study offered by the coUege curriculum 
are not mtended to satisfy the cravings of an idle curiosity, but 
to give men that knowledge of nature and life which will enable 
them to perceive the practical bearings of a question when they 
meet it : to know whether past experience has condemned or 
approved a given project. There is an appetite for knowledge, 
which passes little beyond an eagerness to dabble in all sorts of 
learning for the mere pleasure of it. With this dilettanteism 
the college has no patience. Genuine culture results when 
information is acquired and digested by the well disciplined 
mind. Such culture is a preparation for the most effective work 
in any line of activity which a man may choose. His discipline 
enables him to apply his powers with the least waste to the task 
presented : his information enables him to estimate with the least 
margin of mistake the actual signilicance of his task. 

When we consider the present status of liberal culture, two facts 
indicate an attained modernization : First, the successful demand 
for recognition by what may be called the new learning. In the 
days of our fathers the study of the classics, mathematics, and 
so-called mental philosophy, constituted the largest part of the 
w^ork of our colleges. Earh' in the century new interests in 
learning presented their claims': the history of mediaeval and 
modern times, the languages and the literature of modern 
peoples, and the manifold branches of modern science, called 
for a place in the college curriculum. The educational history 
of the middle and later decades of the century, has been one of 
successive surrender to this demand. One after another the 
sciences have won their place. Little by little the scope of the 
teaching of history has been broadened and enlarged. The 
modern languages and modern literature, including our English 
heritage, have gained recognition. Furthermore, the introduction 
of so many new subjects of study early necessitated the offering 
of the liberty of election to the students, and gradually the elec- 
tive system has extended, until a large proportion of the work in 



34 THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

college is done with classes that have definitely chosen their 
courses. Along with this surrender to the demand of the new 
learning and extension of the elective system, a strong educa- 
tional conservatism has insisted that the palladium of liberal 
culture is in the keeping of the old group of disciplinary studies : 
the classics, mathematics, mental philosophy. The study of the 
sciences, history, and modern literature, vvas introduced in re- 
sponse to the demand for a wider and more modern information. 
As experience grew, however, even the advocates of the older 
culture were forced to recognize the disciplinary value of the 
scientific and historical methods, and of the analytic study of 
literature, so that to-day the new learning rivals the old as a 
means of training, while with many students it surpasses the 
old as a means of broad and interesting information. 

The second noteworthy fact in the present status, is the 
revolution in the method of teaching the classics and mathe- 
matics. Most of us, familiar wdth the old drill in Greek 
grammar and Latin prosody, would hardly recognize the same 
studies, had we the good fortune to sit under our modern in- 
structors in classics ; and some of us, who developed nice skill 
in the recital of Euclid, would be much put to it to pass 
the modern tests in original geometrical demonstration. The 
new interest in the classics finds in them the monuments of a 
people's life. Men used to read Homer to learn the peculiarities 
of the Ionic dialect, and to be impressed with the beauty of 
classic literary form ; Horace was their text-book in Latin 
metres, and the classical pattern of poetic beauty. To-day our 
students read their Homer to learn how the men of ancient 
Greece lived, and fought, and died ; they read their Horace and 
become acquainted with the life of the literary set in Rome in the 
Augustan period. Syntax and grammar they learn, to be sure, 
but as a means to an end. The centre of interest has shifted. 
Reading these classics now, the students " acquaint themselves 
with much of the best that has been known and said in the 



THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS 35 

world, and thus with the history of the human spirit," — to adopt 
Matthew Arnold's phrase. The old study takes on modern 
interest. These peoples, who attained the highest perfection in 
beauty and in law which our race has ever seen, live again to 
add their experience to our modern equipment, and make us wise 
in our daily tasks. I have instanced the new classical teaching 
alone. A similar modernization is apparent in mathematics and 
so-called mental philosoph}^ 

Turning now from the accomplished modifications, let us 
consider some of the questions still pressing for attention. 
Among these, first, the problem of yet further expansion of 
the curriculum. With the increasing recognition of science, 
history, and literature, the colleges have found it necessary 
to open their doors to many students who have made no 
preparation in Greek and Latin. For these students courses 
in Science, and in Philosophy or Letters, have been arranged, 
although regarded as rather inferior to the so-called regular, or 
classical, course. Some of the students in these courses discover, 
after entrance into college, that the old learning has advantages 
and charms that they did not suspect. The college of to-day 
provides elementary instruction in modern languages. Must not 
all our colleges in the near future offer also opportunities to 
beginners in Latin and Greek? The question is not novel. 
Some institutions have already taken this step and have found 
eager welcome for this opportunity. If the modern liberal 
culture recognizes the new and living value of classical study, it 
is due to college students that they have opportunity to obtain 
the classical advantages after entering college, if they have not 
had them previously. The wide recognition of history has 
already been noticed. Within this field, however, there are new 
developments which are demanding, and will more and more 
demand, a place in college teaching. Men turn from the story of 
dynasties and constitutions to the records of the under-currents 
of life. The development of trade, the history of domestic 



36 THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

customs in succeeding generations, the study of social organiza- 
tion, and the manifold kindred topics, are rich with fascinating 
information and full of opportunity for effective discipline. 
There is also a demand for the serious study of sesthetics. 
Apart from literary art, our college training has been content to 
neglect the cultivation of the sense for beauty, as too far 
removed from the practical side of life. Passing with simple 
mention the place given to music in the mediaeval curriculum, 
art has been recognized as a subject of study by few institutions 
except technical schools and some of the larger universities. It 
is clear that our colleges have no call to teach the technique of art ; 
but, if it is true that the sense for beauty is one of the subtlest 
qualities in the human soul, that education is partial which is 
content to leave the aesthetic side of life without discipline and 
information. A liberally educated man should have his sense 
for beauty trained, he should have his knowledge of beauty 
enlarged, by familiarity with the best. To-day, as never before, 
such discipline and information are possible with moderate 
expenditure of money. The great marbles of the world are 
reproduced for us in plaster ; the great paintings and works of 
architecture, m photographs. If the artistic expression of the 
human soul were a passing phase of life, its claim for recognition 
in college training might well be disregarded. The fact that 
attempts at such artistic expression are found among the earliest 
monuments of civilization, and persist in varying form through 
all the stages of the history of mankind, shows the fundamental 
character of aesthetics, and its value as a means of culture. One 
reason why the formal recognition of the study of art seems so 
desirable to me, is that the college might in this way begin a 
ministry to the community which would grow into one of great 
value. If its illustrations of art were chosen with care and 
properly placed, they would readily form a nucleus about which 
might gather in the course of years a collection of original 
paintings and sculpture, loaned to us or owned by us, which 
would be an honor and a boon to the city. 



THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS 37 

If it is true that the traditional curricuhim has neglected the 
study of aesthetics, it may not be so apparent that it has failed 
to give due emphasis to the study of religion. Most of our 
colleges were established with a distinct religious purpose. — the 
love of learning being linked in the minds of the founders with 
their love of God. Religion in college, however, has generally 
found recognition in an atmosphere of reverence and spiritual 
earnestness. The curriculum has not often made place for any 
systematic study of the facts of spiritual life. Our day is one of 
fresh recognition of the reality of religion. From an attitude of 
indifference or opposition, begotten partly by misapprehension 
of spiritual truth, partly by unreasonable opposition on the part 
of organized religion to the advancement of science, the student 
of history and life is coming to recognize that religion has been 
a most potent factor in human evolution. Define religion as we 
may, the fellowship of the soul with that unseen power not 
ourselves that makes for righteousness is the most real experi- 
ence in human life, — the richest in influence, the fullest of vital- 
ity. If it is desirable that a liberal culture should discipline and 
inform the sense for beauty, it is essential that the cultivated man 
should not be left unmindful of this most subtle and most signifi- 
cant phase of life. Such study of religion vrill not, in any wdse, 
rival the appeals of the pulpit or the varied means of religious 
culture. It properly sets before itself two tasks : first, the 
study of the history of religion in all times and among all 
peoples, in order to lead to an appreciation of the facts of 
spiritual life ; and second, acquaintance, in some measure, with 
the most significant parts of the Christian Scriptures. In this 
the college will not seek to do the work of the Sunday school or 
the theological seminary, but simply to secure for its graduates 
such an acquaintance with the most potent of spiritual forces 
as will justify its claim to have given them a genuinely liberal 
culture. 



^8 THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

These demands for expansion of the curriculum to include 
work for beginners in the classics, new phases of historical 
study, culture in aesthetics, and in the facts of religion, may 
represent the constant call for recognition of new or neglected 
branches of learning. They also emphasize a different problem 
which seriously presses for solution. We may call it the 
problem of adjustment. The crowding of our curriculum 
with new studies has forced the adoption of the educational 
principle of free election of studies. This in itself is a distinct 
advance. At present, however, the result is confusion. Few of 
our institutions have taken steps so to regulate election as to 
preserve that balance in education which is essential to a broad 
culture ; few have taken steps to prevent the idle man from seek- 
ing his degree by means of work which will cost a minimum of 
effort. Inasmuch as a college does not aim to train specialists, 
and as it assuredly does not purpose to reward indolence, we are 
face to face with the problem of a new estimate of the educa- 
tional significance of different studies — their worth for training 
and information — and with the demand for such a regulation of 
election as will leave the student's freedom essentially unim- 
paired, while securing from every candidate for graduation work 
sufficiently broad to warrant sending him out into life as an 
educated man. Some of our colleges have studied this problem 
and are attempting a solution. We have it before us and will 
take it up courageously. 

Readjustment brings with it the problem of educational 
economy. There is complaint that our present system involves 
too much waste — waste of time and waste of energy. The 
graduate finds that much of the work he was compelled to do 
is of little service in his after life. His text-books lie in dust 
on his upper shelves — or on those of some dealer in second-hand 
books — and their contents are forgotten. 

The extension of the elective system may do much to silence 
this complaint of waste of time. The ground for the complaint 



THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS 39 

may be largely removed by the continuous modernizing of the 
work of the college. The readjustments of the curriculum now 
in progress should provide such guidance in elections that 
immature students will have least cause to regret the courses 
chosen by them. There is no more serious obligation resting on 
our shoulders as educators than this of reducing educational 
waste to a minimum. 

Economy is called for in another direction. There is a wide- 
spread demand for the reduction of the time necessary for 
securing advanced degrees in our universities. At the same 
time professional schools are finding it necessary to increase 
their courses by a year, while it is manifestly impossible for the 
college to reduce its course to three years with so many new 
subjects pressing for recognition. A response to the demand is 
possible, however, if we can reduce somewhat the duplication of 
work in the college and university courses. Universities — like 
Harvard and Columbia and Chicago — which have colleges 
allied with them, solve the difficulty by opening to undergradu- 
ates certain courses in the professional schools, which are in 
some cases credited towards both the bachelor's degree and 
the higher one which follows it. This simple solution is not yet 
practicable for the isolated college. In order to give a liberal 
culture it must offer to its students courses which are closely akin 
to the professional studies which some of these students will 
afterwards pursue. Economy of the student's time and the 
reduction of duplication of work may be secured in two ways, if 
the college will seek a closer understanding with the university. 
On the one hand, it may prove wise for us to arrange, under 
certain conditions, to recognize a year of work in the university 
as counting towards the bachelor's degree, in place of one spent 
in residence. This might be done in connection with the read- 
justment of the curriculum noticed already. On the other hand, 
the college may arrange to give courses of an introductory and 
general character in subjects pursued further in professional 



40 THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

schools, and ma)^ ask the universities to recognize this work, — 
in the measure of its excellence, — so reducing the time necessary 
to secure the advanced degree. There is no reason why 
students w^ho have no intention of specializing in medicine, 
for instance, should not gain their training in scientific method 
and information concerning scientific attainments, by the pursuit 
of studies that will contribute directly to the special end the 
aspirant for the degree of medicine has before him. Specializing 
and general culture can go hand in hand for a time with distinct 
advantage to both. Whatever the ultimate solution ma}^ be, this 
demand for the reduction of waste in education presses for early 
attention. 

A fourth problem confronting the modern college administra- 
tion, is the question of the degree which shall be granted for the 
successful pursuit of the college course. The degree of bachelor 
of arts is the traditional and suitable evidence of a course of 
liberal culture. The granting of this degree corresponds with 
the ceremony by which, in the middle ages, a student at Paris or 
Oxford was recognized as a candidate for the master's degree in 
arts, law, theology, or medicine. Our educational conservatism 
has reserved this degree in arts for those who have included in 
their training the study of the Greek and Latin classics. The 
demand for full college work for students not in the classical 
course has consequently led to the offering of a degree in 
science, and in philosophy, or letters. The so-called bachelor's 
degree in philosophy, or letters, represents in our American life 
that a student has pursued a course of liberal culture which 
includes but one ancient language. The degree of bachelor of 
science often indicates little else than that the student has 
pursued a course of liberal culture which includes no training in 
classics. The degree of bachelor of science properly should 
mean that the student has completed the first stage in a course 
of special scientific training ; it is not suitable evidence of liberal 
culture in any sense. The dominance of the classics as a means 



THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS 4I 

of liberal culture dates from the time of the renaissance. Dur- 
ing the mediaeval period the student at the University of Paris 
learned Latin as a means of communication between cultured 
men ; of the Latin classics he had the slightest knowledge, if any. 
With the renaissance the literature of Greece and Rome came to 
the old world as a means of new and enriched life. The new 
learning was then this classical literature. These studies obtained 
their place in the curricula of the older institutions as a fresh 
and enriching means of mental discipline and information. It is 
historically justifiable, therefore, that the new learning of our 
recent times, in so far as it is fitted to give to students that 
discipline and information which are essential to liberal culture, 
should be recognized by the degree of bachelor of arts. This 
new learning will not in this way displace the classics. It will 
simply take its place, beside the older culture as a means of 
liberal education, fitted to enable a student to enter upon his life 
work with broad views and disciplined powers. 

These educational problems are not to find their solution in a 
day. All permanent growth is gradual. The opportunity of 
this afternoon has invited me to consider these features of the 
prospect which opens before me, as I enter upon this work to 
which I have been called. Little by little the present will 
change into the better future. Little by little this vision will be 
chastened, corrected, and disciplined by those larger views 
which will come with a larger experience ; but always the aim 
before the college, in so far as it remains a college, will be to 'give 
to its students a culture genuinely liberal, by means of an educa- 
tion which is modern and economical. 

To-day you have honored the college by your presence, 
citizens of Rochester. The prospect for our future is bright in 
the measure of your interest. We are here to serve a wide 
constituency reaching many cities and neighboring states, but 
orrr closest, most intimate relation must be with the city which 
gives us hospitality. Our students come in large measure from 



42 THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

your homes, the ties which Hnk our interests with yours grow 
stronger with each year. It is our ambition to serve you most 
fully. We would give you here the opportunity for the most 
thorough modern education, which shall neither despise the past, 
nor be blindly tied to it; an education of the widest scope 
possible with our resources. As new demands arise and new 
resources are found, we pledge to you that we will meet the 
demands most eagerly, and use the resources with the broadest 
wisdom we can attain. 

The fathers did not see our present day, but they saw larger 
things than they knew, which include and surpass any present 
attainment or definite prospect. The hand engraved on the 
college seal points onward toward ever "better things." We 
follow those courageous souls in studying with unresting earnest- 
ness for the modernizing of the culture which we offer you in 
their name. 



.y,?,^^"^ OF CONGRESS 



020 773 729 A 




PRESS OF 
JOHN C. MOORi 




ROCHESTER 
NEW YORK 



